The story of Niccolo Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti was one so powerful
that it is still lamented almost 90 years
later. In 1920, the two Italian-American anarchists were convicted of murder
outside of Boston and held for seven
years before their execution in 1927. To
the authorities’ chagrin, the execution
resounded as an electric shock heard
‘round the world, as the two had garnered support from the far-reaching
corners of the planet. Everyone knew
the names Sacco and Vanzetti, and
nearly everyone resented their deaths.

In 2006, Peter Miller directed a
documentary about the plight of Sacco
and Vanzetti. Laid upon the backdrop
of black and white footage from 1927,
Miller skillfully combines interviews
with historians, including Howard
Zinn and Studs Terkel, and icons like
Arlo Guthrie (whose father wrote songs
about the duo), in addition to folks who
were then only children but still remember the Sacco and Vanzetti support
rallies.

It is a true challenge to recreate the
feelings of anger and injustice that ac-
companied the trial and death of these
anarchists profiled for their ethnicity
and political beliefs. But Miller achieves
this through his masterful storytelling
in addition to the connection that we all
feel to this kind of repression, whether
the enemy is profiled as anarchists or
communists, Italians or Arabs.

In this sense, the film is not only
about Sacco and Vanzetti. It resonates
as a universal illustration of prejudice,
fear, hype, and hatred. Our Sacco and
Vanzetti of today could easily have
slightly darker skin and headscarves
instead of bowler hats. But the potential for scapegoating is still there, and
that’s what makes Sacco and Vanzetti
such an important film. Today’s generation growing up in a time of endless war
must know that there were folks who
fought before them and that the struggle still continues.